AMN / NEW DELHI
The Government today said, the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 in the country are being monitored at the highest level and various actions have been initiated in collaboration with the States.
Addressing media in New Delhi, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry, Lav Aggarwal said that Prime Minister is regularly monitoring and reviewing the situation with top officials of the concerned Ministries, Departments and States. He said, Mr Modi had a Video Conference with the representatives of doctors and healthcare professionals to express his gratitude and to seek their continued involvement and support in handling this crisis.
Mr. Aggarwal said that Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has asked the States to further enhance surveillance and contact tracing of positive cases in order to break the chain of transmission. He said that the Centre is monitoring the progress with respect to States having earmarked hospitals dedicated for COVID-19 cases.
Gujarat, Assam, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Goa, Karnataka, MP and Jammu and Kashmir are setting up hospitals dedicated for the management of COVID-19. He said, in order to enforce implementation of social distancing, almost all the States have issued orders for lockdown. More than 30 states and UTs have imposed full lockdown and States have been asked to enforce implementation of lockdown measures.
In addition, manufacturers have been identified domestically and procurement has been initiated to ensure that there is no shortage of PPEs, N95 masks and other protective equipment needed by doctors to carry out their duties.
Mr Aggarwal also informed that in addition, 118 laboratories have been included in the ICMR network of COVID-19 testing with a capacity to test 12,000 samples per day. In the last five days, on an average 1338 samples have been tested per day. Furthermore, 22 private lab chains have registered with ICMR for COVID-19 testing and they have 15,500 collection centers nationwide. Also, out of 15 kit manufacturers, NIV Pune has approved three PCR based kits and one antibody detection kit. One of these is Indian manufacturer. The Health Ministry also said that the use of hydroxy-chloroquine for prophylaxis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is recommended for Asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 and Asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 or novel coronavirus cases has gone up to 492 so far in the country. The cases include 41 foreign nationals. Out of the total positive cases, 36 patients have been discharged after being cured of Corona virus and 9 patients have died. So far over 15.24 lakh passengers have been screened at various airports in the country.